Ten Of The All-Time Worst Refereeing Decisions To Go Against Lincoln City

3: Sammie Szmodics’ dive

On 1 May 2021, as we looked towards a possible automatic promotion, City produced one of their best performances of the season at London Road, with two goals from Anthony Scully and a Jorge Grant penalty putting us 3-0 ahead. Peterborough fought back to 3-2, but as stoppage time ticked away, we were still protecting a victory that would keep our faint automatic-promotion hopes alive.

Then Sammie Szmodics went down near Scully, and referee John Busby awarded a penalty for a foul that simply wasn’t there. Jonson Clarke-Harris converted in the 96th minute to make it 3-3, giving Peterborough the point they needed to secure promotion. Even the Football Supporters’ Association subsequently described the award as an “extremely dubious penalty”.

That decision did not, by itself, cost us promotion: injuries, earlier defeats and results still to come all own some of the blame. It did cost us two points, end our remaining chance of automatic promotion and turn an excellent away performance into the backdrop to Peterborough’s celebrations. A confirmed play-off place was a huge achievement, but it was difficult to celebrate while watching a penalty that should never have been given decide the afternoon.